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JLM and Haraga have just put up reviews, and made their points about why they enjoyed the matches. Kenny's just posted a link to his ECW TV reviews on RIM. Various people have posted their thoughts on previous posts. Bionic Redneck has provided links, but also brief synopses and thoughts.

Where's the endless Youtube listing? Quit yer bellyaching.

As an addition to the Waylon Mercy discussion, you need to have his theme tune, because it's creepy, disturbing, yet also pretty cool:

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I never got a chance to see him in 1995. At the time, the only way I got to see wrestling was when I scrounged around my friends and asked them to tape the Big Five for me. So I didn't see any of the weekly shows, and as a result, missed pretty much all of JPL.

However, I always liked him as half of the Quebecers - a big guy who was surprisingly agile always gets a thumbs up from me. It's why I mark out for Mabel/Viscera/Big Daddy V's rolling heel kick.

It was quite cool how LaFitte was Bret Hart's main rival on the minor In Your House shows over the summer of 1995 - IYH2 and 3, I believe - while the main shows were reserved for his ongoing feud with Jerry Lawler and Isaac Yankem. Similarly, the next year Undertaker had the same sort of thing going with Mankind on the big PPVs and Goldust in the minor ones.

I guess the closest comparison these days is John Cena mixing it up with Big Show and the Miz.

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This was an absolute god send of a match. There were some strange decisions, but on the whole, this was amazing. The amazing thing was just how both guys sold their injuries and made them believable and had either guy wanting to win. Malenko and Guerrero just did loads of reversals. An amazing match. ****1/2

Ultimo Dragon vs. Psychosis

All sorts of cool reversals going on here. This was your bog standard cruiser match. Lots of big spots, no meaning but both guys did their best to redeem it. **3/4

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Well I guess this thread is perfect for my nostalgia FMW reviewing. Here's ths hows I watched so far

FMW Hand-Held - October 6, 1989, Nagoya (Debut Show) - (1 3/4 hrs)

October 6, 1989, Nagoya Sports Center (4000 fans)

- Opening Ceremony

1. Boat People Joe -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [**]

--- A fairly slow paced match with some good moves in between. The wrestling wasn ok enough in a walking pace. Wakita had most of the offence, but Boat People Joe came back and got the win with a fine top rope lariat. Wakita is of course Super Delfin getting his first gig in Japan after having to flee to Europe to get his pro-wrestling career going after his training in the New Japan dojo didn't lead to anything. I've got no idea who this star-masked Boat People Joe is. Can anyone help with that?

10:58 of 10:59 - Joe pinned Wakita after a top rope lariat

2. Jimmy Backlund -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [**]

--- Backlund carried judo style wrestler Tokuda to a decent bout. Some good suplexes and mat work. Tokuda had most of the offence, but couldn't put Backlund away with submissions. Backlund the got the pin with a backdrop which Tokuda almost kicks out of. That after Takuda had been in control locking these submissions in and throwing the future "Heavenly Body" Jimmy Del Ray around. Backlunds ring attire really looked terrible in a sleezy way. Ultimate jobber look. This match was also noticable of having a young Ted Tanabe as referee!

5:45 of 5:45 - Backlund pinned Tokuda with a backdrop suplex hold

3. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga -vs- Billy Mack - (Rounds) [* 1/4]

--- "Mr.Danger" in one of his first wrestling matches. Without the beard. Without the bleached hair. But in his martial arts costume kicking and kicking at Mack at a insanse pace. Mack didn't know how to handle it and just took the beating without hardly getting anything in. This match was done in 3-minute rounds and in the 3rd Mack was tired of Matsunaga's kicking knocking him down with a closed first punch which at this point isn't allowed in FMW and that got Mack DQ'ed as referee Ted Tanabe didn't like that.

7:44 of 7:30 - Matsunaga defeated Mack by DQ (1:30) of the 3rd Round.

4. Witch Warrior -vs- Miwa Sato & Eriko Tsuchiya & Kumiko Matsuda [*]

--- Here's the early stage of FMW's women's division. Sato, Matsuda and the lady who's later become Shark Tsuchiya was the first women out of the FMW dojo facing an bigger American with a very GLOW like "tallent". It was fun for it's cheesyness as the young babyface FMW women trying to handle this monster of a woman. Even Tsuchiya was a rookie babyface at this point and also got squashed by the Vampire lady who came flying off the top rope with a tope. Other FMW'ers was at ringside like Crusher Maedomari, but this was before Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyoda and Rebun Amada came to town. After the bout another big foreigner (Bad Girl?) came to attack the Warrior, so it was the American girls that was the focus early on.

--- Kurisu is a curious character. Longtime opening card guy for AJPW during the 80's and appearently grumpy about not getting more out of his career. FMW would be the first place he'd get to vent out his anger at poor helpless young guys, but his first match for FMW he gets to beat a bigger masked foreigner in a very basic bout. A little too basic, but you could still see Kurisu has the wonderfull stiff bastard execution the little he does like on the lariat before making Sambo submit to a submission.

9:59 of 9:59 - Kurisu made Sambo Kid submit to a kneebar

6. Masaji Aoyagi -vs- Atsushi Onita - (Rounds) [***]

--- Onita! Onita! Onita! Freakin' awesome. Even before the dawn of the hardcore legend the fans adored Onita as he takes on martial artist Aoyagi. Onita and Aoyagi had faced each other at least twice already in 1989 in Pioneer and another indy show and had already a established hatred. Both guys are also from Nagayo so it's a real treat for the hometown fans who packed this arena. For this match the fans actually stood up and was very vocal. You don't see that happen these days. Onita would open well with his Funk wrestling, but the kicks and karate punches of Aoyagi was effective and Onita milked the pain to hell. It was the times Onita was knocked down the match was really alive along with Onita fighting with all his heart. But it wasn't enough in this match as Aoyagi had him kicked to pieces once the 4th round was ending. Onita could barely get up as the final round started. Not even with the corner support of Tarzan Goto, who didn't wrestle on the show, or the fans going crazy for a Onita revenge. He was doomed and his corner men knew it too and threw in the towel. The expression on Onita's face as he saw the towel was just classic! The Onita crybaby look. While Aoyagi was celebrated by his karate students getting thown in the air. I miss wrestling that was this much alive and real at heart.

13:25 of 16:13 - Aoyagi defeated Onita (0:45) of the 5th Round when the towel was thrown in

COMMENTS: FMW's fist show creating an immediate buzz. At this time there was only one other indy promotion and that was Pioneer unless you classify UWF as a indy. And the hardcore fans where hungry for something different to what All Japan and New Japan had to offer and Onita gave them just what they wanted. This was only prototype of what FMW would become, but it came with a unpredictable formula and a place where nobodys could become somebody. Watching guys who'd end up having long careers so fresh and unestablished is fun. Here we had a maskless Super Delfin, unbleaced "Mr.Danger" Matsunaga, rookie girl Shark Tsuchiya, "Heavenly Bodies" Jimmy Del Ray early in his career and of course Aoyagi early in his career. But of course the life of FMW was always Atsushi Onita from day one.

--- I know very little about Pioneer's roster or results. They were a short-lived indy promotion before indy wrestling took over in Japan. So I've no idea about these wrestlers at all. The names might be wrong too, but I belive this is the Matsuzaki that would turn up in countless indy promotions in the 90's. The other guy I'm clueless about. This match was done in a very MMA style way in a 5 rounds 2 minute rules way. There was hardly any striking in this match, but they were well schooled at the ground game. Almost too schooled at the defensive part because this became too uneventful as they'd get out or away from anything dangerous before it became dangerous. But no doubt these two had good training at the fighting game before wrestling in Pioneer. Anyway this ended in a 5 round draw.

10:25 of 10:00 - Matsuzaki wrestled Hasizume to a time limit draw after 5 Rounds

2. Hiroshi Itakura -vs- Yuji Kawachi [** 1/2]

--- Pioneer wasn't as professional looking as UWF at the time, but it was the next best thing if you liked the shootstyle of wrestling. In a way Pioneer looks like the late-80's version of Battlarts. Solid workers displaying some fine technical fighting in all aspects of the game. Submissions, suplexes and strikes. Itakura was bigger and stronger the Kawachi and would dominate him almost the entire bout throwing him around like he was nothing. That of course generated some love for Kawachi when he'd try and make his comebacks. Very short-lived comebacks, but he did manage to suplex Itakura a couple of times. But having so control of the match Itakura wasn't going to let that stop him. In the end nobody got the win and it went to a time limit draw.

20:01 of 20:00 - Irakura wrestled Kawachi to a 20:00 Time Limit Draw

3. Masahiko Takasugi -vs- Masato Ueno - (Rounds) [**]

--- Takasugi was more the traditional pro-wrestler while Ueno had more MMA style to him and not as fluid in the pro game. I wouldn't call the match all that good, but I found some enjoyment out of it anyway as Ueno who looked fairly uncomfortable did get in a couple of nice moves and even a amateur lift powerbomb to surprise me while Takasugi would be the one to keep the match together with the basics and even treating Ueno like a rookie in the end locking in the single leg crab for the win in round 4.

10:08 - Takasugi made Ueno submit to a single leg crab at (0:50) in the 4th Round

4. Ryuma Go -vs- Fumihiro Niikura [* 1/2]

--- How many short-lived indy promotions was Go apart of? Many. So many that the yakuza controled him and forced him into doing gay porn to pay off his debt. At least he got to be in main events of promotion that collapsed one after the other. Here on this Pioneer show he faces former bodybuilder Fumihiro Niikura who was trained in New Japan debuting in 1981 before jumping to All Japan around 1985, probable coming with Choshu and his gang during all the termoil with Inoki at the time. But Niikura was nothing but or opening card nobody and in 1986 he had a heart attack. Here a heart attack and many opening card matches in his career he gets to main event a indy show with the once respectable peoples wrestler Ryuma Go. And it was a very down to the ground technical pro-wrestling match without many flashy moments. They relyed mostly on the submissions getting the crowds emotion, but it didn't work as well as they'd hoped as there was more laughter then cheering most of the time as Go was already a comical figure in 1989 it seems. Far from his famouse days of the late-70's when he was feuding with Tatsumi Fujinami over the WWF Junior belt. The crowd also seemed unhappy that Go won this long bout too.

--- Current NOAH wrestler in his early days in pro-wrestling and before he killed Mitsuharu Misawa. This was before he'd officially became a pro-wrestler only doing a karate exhibition match on a pro-wrestling show. Saito made his official pro debut on December 20, 1990, over a year later. So it's a curiosity seeing him so young and fit. The fight wasn't anything sepcial except for Saito getting knocked down by a illigal fist punch at the end of the 1st round. The match was still declared a draw and Saito didn't look too good.

5:07 of 4:00 - Saito fought Yoshioka to a draw after 2 Rounds

8. Little Devil -vs- Tiger Jackson [1/2*]

--- Little Devil was Little Louie under the Boat Man Joe mask. I KNOW Little Louie wasn't the rather tall guy under that mask on FMW's debut show This was a pure midget comedy match! Funny and not at all serious in any way. The masked Louie won with a roll-up hooking Tiger's shoulders down with his short legs.

8:20 - Devil pinned Jackson with a leg roll-up

9. Delta Dawn -vs- Kumiko Matsuda & Miwa Sato [*]

--- Delta Dawn was one of the foreigners, along with Madusa and The Beastie, AJW used during their experimenting period between the Crush Gals era and the early 90's hardcore fans boom. Thankfully Dawn they stopped using Dawn and sadly FMW brings her back to Japan in a rather badly funny squash of two of it's unfinished girls. Sato & Matsuda didn't have too much to come with, but I found it rather enjoyable even if the match was shit. Dawn wins naturally.

7:02 of 7:04 - Dawn pinned Sato after a backbreaker

10. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [* 1/2]

--- Sambo Asako has joined FMW by this time and while the future Super Delfin looked more professional in his work then him Sambo had the size and legit background so Wakita didn't stand a chance but made a good figure while losing. Wakita's dropkicks looked especially good. But he was up against a guy with extensive sambo training and with several armbar locks, a chickenwing crossface and a big fisherman's suplex Wakita was close to helpless against the big guy. And a powerslam was all that was needed and the Monkey man was pinned.

7:22 - Asako pinned Wakita with a powerslam

11. Dennis Knight -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [*]

--- The future WWF/E star Godwinn and Mideon against a Japanese martial arts guy. Ok for the spots like Knight's DDT and Tokuda's backdrop suplex. Knight also used the martial arts belt to choke Taokuda with before powerslaming him down for the count.

6:43 of 6:43 - Knight pinned Tokuda with a powerslam

12. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga -vs- Tarzan Goto - (Rounds) [** 1/2]

--- This was ugly sweet! Goto started out like a badass, but Matsunaga with his martial arts quickly put an stop to that knocking him out of the ring with a summersault kick. That set the "love" between the two and they continued beating the crap out of each other for the next 3 rounds. Matsunaga's kicking and superb he was ruthlessly out to hurt the FMW'er and Goto wasn't going to let the martial artist do that without paying. In the chaos the referee was unable to control the hatred in the ring and was knocked down several times by Goto before more people entered the ring and the two rivals was covered in blood for a hot screwjob finish. Matsunaga was awarded the win, but but this feud seems far from over.

--- Unintentional funny things before the match was the positioning of the flower girls and the audio of Onita's "Wild Thing" enterance dropping out. Shows you that FMW wasn't as well organized and professional in it's early days as the big companys. The match was a good ol' southern brawl. Old school American punch fighting with the kings of that style in Dick Murdoch and Jos LeDuc doing a wonderful job swinging the punches. One of the awesome parts was Kurisu getting a chair smashed over his head and Murdoch continuing squeezing the head in between the chairseat. Also the way Kurisu got upset with the crowd abling Murduch to ambush him from behind. The end came with the only attempt at winning during the match as Murduck simply rolled Kurisu up in a inside cradle after a blow from LeDuc had backfired. Onita was there to lay the punches in too, but he was greatly out-shadowed here by the two big old foreigners at this game.

--- Yeah, Kurisu sure is a grumpy old man. He doesn't like to see younger guys try and take his spotlight and Wakita got a taste of that here headbutting and stomping him down and out of the ring before the real punishment started. Man, did those chairshots sounded nasty! Kurisu wasn't holding anything back going berzerk with that chair. The view was blocked because of the fans, but you could see him swing the chair and the sound could everybody hear! And then back in the ring it was over with a armlock.

7:50 of 7:51 - Kurisu made Wakita submit to a chickenwing hold

15. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [3/4*]

--- Two martial arts guys trying their luck at pro-wrestling without much experience. Not a total trainwreck, but hardly a masterpiece. Best part was Asako running Tokuda down like a speedy truck trying to kill someone. Asako won via count out because of that. But that's when Tarzan Goto came out and demanded a re-start. I wish they hadn't because the next 3 minutes had close to nothing happening....

5:02 of 5:00 - Asako defeated Tokuda by Count Out

2:44 - Asako wrestled Tokuda to a Time Limit Draw

16. Dick Murdoch -vs- Dennis Knight - (Chain Match) [**]

--- Short, but classic Murdoch fight. As soon as Dennis called Murdoch an old man Knight got his ass whipped like he was his little kid. And Murdoch ends it like he usually does in Japan. With the legendary brainbuster!

3:57 of 3:57 - Murdoch pinned Knight after a brainbuster

17. Atsushi Onita -vs- Mitsuhiro Matsunaga - (Rounds) [**]

--- Not as heated as most Onita matches. Matsunaga would use his karate kicking and punching effectively, but this match was all about the Thunder Fire powerbomb! Onita tried for it in the 2nd round, but Matsunaga blocked it, but he didn't do that in the 3rd round and was MURDERED! Once the match was over Tarzan Goto came in to create heat and help build for his bout with Matsunaga on the 4th which I reviewed earlier here.

7:44 of 6.33 - Onita pinned Matsunaga with a Thunder Fire powerbomb at (1:33) in the 3rd Round

COMMENTS: The one and a half hours of Pioneer Senshi wrestling was interesting. The wrestling was realistic looking, but kind of faceless. But it's a promotion I wish there was more info on available as they did have some interesting inter-promotional matches in their short excistance which might be available some obscure place via hand-helds out there. The other two shows on this one are two shows from FMW's first real tour after their two debut shows in October. Sadly I don't have any source for FMW's first Korakuen Hall show on October 10th which has the Onita vs Aoyagi rematch and I'm pretty sure a copy of that show can be found somewhere. FMW also had shows on December 3rd, 6th, 8th and 10th. But only the tour ended seems to be available via hand-held (or is there commercial relases of some of these?). FMW managed to bring in Little (Louie) Devil, Tiger Jackson, Delta Dawn, Despina Montagas, Dennis Knight, Joe LeDuc and most of all Dick Murdoch who'd last been seen in Japan working for New Japan a year earlier for this tour and did a impressive run drawing full houses. But probable the main reason for that was Onita and FMW's feud with the martial arts people from Masashi Aoyagi's camp.

--- The midget comedy with ass biting, ass grabing and time for ass scratching on slow counts. Little Louie wins again like he did in their December 4th match. Simple leg roll-up.

6:46 of 6:46 - Devil pinned Jackson with a leg roll-up

2. Dennis Knight -vs- Mitsuteru Tokada [*]

--- Dressed Mideon facing the martial arts nobody Tokuda and only gets in a little bit of trouble. Tokuda did leep out of the ring with a plancha and executed a backdrop suplex nicely along with locking Knight in different submissions MMA style. But that's nothing against the Texas style of a fucked-up DDT and a sloppy lariat before Knight did a "Dr.Death" style powerslam for the win. The match had it's spots, but hardly a wrestling classic.

6:57 of 6:57 - Knight pinned Tokuda wit ha running powerslam

3. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Shoji Akiyoshi [** 1/4]

--- Take notes veterans. Don't want any stupid kid to enter this business and think they're pro wrestlers? This is how you treat them. No silky gloves on here. Kurisu doesn't like rookies and that's what Universal Lucha Libre wrestler Akiyoshi got to feel. Akiyoshi is current New Japan wrestler Jado in his very early days. And I bet he regret taking on this booking because Kurisu was in KAYFABE!od to play with kids. It started nicely with some hard stomping from the veteran. Then came the kicking to the head and the chairshots looked absolutely sickening! Kurisu more or less knocked him silly and to the point that Jado couldn't get up and needed help from two guys and he still coundn't stand up. Classic old fuck beats the crap out of a nobody loser. Ironically Akiyoshi ended up having a much more successful career then Kurisu had. Hell, most people had a better career then Kurisu.

7:19 of 7:19 - Kurisu pinned Akiyoshi after a headkick

4. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [* 1/4]

--- The big sambo dude and Wakita facing one and other again and once more the big guy won with a powerslam. Wakita tried to suplex Asako a few times, but gave up on the ridiculous attempts doing inside cradles instead. The future Delfin was in reality helpless against the size and legit background of Asako.

7:01 of 7:01 - Asako pinned Wakita after a powerslam

5. Delta Dawn -vs- Despina Montages - (Indian Strap Match) [*]

--- I feared the worst seeing as there was two gaijin females fighting each other, but they kept it short and simple enough to make it work. Not too much need for the ropes apart from a little choking and it was Montages who was mostly in charge before Jos LeDuc the bastard helped Dawn by punching the women down making Montages a easy victim for Dawn. Tarzan Goto naturally didn't like that LeDuc was hitting on his woman.....

6:02 of 6:02 - Dawn pinned Montages after Jos LeDuc punched her down

6. Dick Murdoch -vs- Jos LeDuc - (Chain Match) [**]

--- Two freakin' oldtimers in a old school chain match. And you could see they've done this type of match before as the chain wasn't just something that was in the way to stumble over. It was used effectively as a weapon and also a way to counter with like when LeDuc threw it around the turnbuckle post to pull Murdoch off him and then beat the crap out of him as Murdoch was trapped in the corner. Otherwise most of the end was closed fist fighting which both of these know how to do. Many punches until they were dazed and bloodied and Murdoch could land the big elbow drop to beat the big fat lumberjack. The fans however wanted Murdoch to end with a brainbuster. They didn't get their wish and I don't think that's even possible to get LeDuc off the ground that way.

--- Don't know who Blayman (or Jerry Grayman?) is, but he's a tall martial arts foreigner who gets the honor of being in the first barbed wire match in Japan teaming with the future "Mr.Danger" against the two FMW favourites in Tarzan and the God himself Onita! The barbed around the ring wrapped around the turnbuckle posts so that there was some space for the wrestlers to stand on the apron between the ropes and the sharp wire. The barbed wire wasn't really used for bumping. Sure they touched it as they were pushed into it standing out on the apron waiting for a tag and a Onita in pain would grab on to it "without knowing" what he was grabing. Onita of course got a big cut on the arm which he was selling like he was near death being nearly helpless against the martial artists who's kicking looked weak in a very unstructured bout. But the match had life! A lot of it. It was a war area which the barbed wire helped picture. And the war was on until Onita got in a final force of attack dropping Blayman down on his neck with the Thunder Fire powerbomb for the KO where Onita himself barely got up in time. That might have been the end of that match, but Masashi Aoyagi made sure the war would continue attacking and brawling with both Onita and also Kurisu who alongside Onita & Goto was all former AJPW lowcarders together. That feud didn't marerialize as after the January Korakuen Hall show Aoyagi's martial arts guys were pulled from FMW shows.

COMMENTS: Fun seeing old guys like Murdoch and LeDuc do an old fashioned brawl. Slow and man-like. The undercard was very random stuff, but that Kurisu squash is something that'll stick in your mind a long time because that trashing of Jado was unhumane! But most important about this show is naturally Onita doing his first barbed wire match in Japan. A trend that would set the flavour for so many indy promotions to come the decades later. Onita matches are so raw and emotional it's insane. I wish more people would learn form him and how he does his Terry Funk act.

--- Ueda is a boring shootboxer who was Onita's bodyguard getting to be apart of the FMW roster. Matsunaga gets through to the next round because of a simple screwjob lowblow.

1:03 of 3:21 - Matsunaga defeated Ueda by DQ 0:21 of the 2nd Round

3. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Lee Gak Soo - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Soo is a very Bruce Lee type figther and something very different. Quick animated kung fu kicking and quite energetic and fun in that way. I wouldn't say his kicks are the most damanging, but Asako sold them like he was about to get KO'ed. However Soo get a little carried away and ended up kicking down the referee too as he was doing a KO count and that caused the second screwjob in a row.

2:02 of 6:29 - Asako defeated Soo by DQ 0:29 of the 3rd Round

4. Tarzan Goto -vs- Satoshi Imaizumi - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Didn't look too impressive and short yet boring match where Tarzan beat up a martial artist who's probable from Aoyagi's stable. A couple of judo takedowns from Imaizumi, but that was it and Goto won unspectacularly with a knee standing Cobra Clutch.

2:19 of 4:14 - Goto made Imaizumi submit to a Cobra Clutch

5. Atsushi Onita -vs- The Shooter #1 - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Onita facing a masked mystery shooter! Oh, the drama! Not! Shooter impressed with some professional kicking, but was soon exposed as easy beat-up meat for Onita who Thunder Fire'ed him before locking in the leg for the crab.

2:56 of 3:57 - Onita made Shooter submit to a single leg crab

6. Tarzan Goto -vs- Fumiharu Asako - (Open Tournament - Round 2)

--- Highlight from Asako was him armdraging Goto out of the ring and a hillarious lariat where Asako climed to the freakin' top rope to execute it. He jumped kind of short and the Korakuen Hall more or less filled with laughter at the sight of this fat man trying a crazy thing like that and not pulling it off properly even if he got Goto down. Well, with Asako not knowing how to follow up on a wounded Tarzan was met with a headbutt out of nowhere for the pin. Lovely simple finish.

--- Beast the Barbarian?! Did this guy ever have much of a career anywhere before or after this? He was a typical 80's barbarian character with some absolutely lovely fury trunks! Fur on trunks is underrated! In very typical Onita way he made his opponent look good beating him up even if the fans was having a hard time taking this barbarian seriously. He worked kind of stiff though and even smashed a chair over the ring announcer before it originally ended in a draw when they were fighting on the Korakuen floor. They got a re-start and this time for the WWA Brass Knucks Belt. Best parts of this was Onita's backdrop suplex out on the floor along with the Thunder Fire powerbombs Onita needed to do to put this freak out of his misary. I know he's supposed to be a beast, but I still don't understand why they let him kick out of the first deadly Thunder Fire powerbomb?! At least the second one got him looking brutal. And now Onita has a belt to build his promotion around.

2:16 of 2:17 - Barbarian wrestled Onita to a No-Contest

4:49 of 4:56 - Onita pinned Barbarian after a Thunder Fire powerbomb to become the 2nd WWA Brass Knucks Champion.

--- After wrestling Beast the Barbarian Onita was tired and beat down and Tarzan just rolled over Onita with ease stomping him to the ground before locking in a cross-armbreaker bending the arm again and again until Onita nodded his head for the submission. Very unspectacularly done, but also surprising how simple it was done seeing the great Onita quit so easy and clean.

3:32 of 3:32 - Goto made Onita submit to a cross-armbreaker

10. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Tarzan Goto - (Open Tournament - Final) [*]

--- Goto beat Onita with ease and Kurisu close to beat Goto with ease. The 3 former All Japan lowcarders are dividing the top position in the company in it's first 6 months in excistance. Goto's problem was his back. And with Kurisu favourite hobby being to stomp and smash chairs over that area Tarzan was as helpless as he gets. And when it finally looked like Goto would make the comeback his back was hurting so much that he couldn't execute his offensive moves and Kurisu would be all over him again. Very simple and effective formula like with most of the turnament. Nobody was superhuman except maybe beast the Barbarian and they capitalized on someone hurting and kept it at that. There might never had been any major climaxes, but the story was in full effect and that gave Kurisu the win here as he locked Tarzan in a crab hold bending that back some more until he submitted. Kurisu attacked Onita after the bout setting up the barbed wire match between them on February 12th.

7:58 of 7:58 - Kurisu made Goto submit to a single leg crab

February 12, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2350 fans)

11. Konan El Barbaro -vs- Rey Misterio [* 3/4]

--- An early Konan bout. This was when he was still wearing a mask and the match was close to a wrestling lesson from Misterio with Konan doing ok, but showing strong signs of not being totally ready for the big time just yet. I loved how they kept teasing tope spots again and again irritating the crowd more and more before Konan was the one to finally land one. At least partially as he nearly flew over Misterio. Well, Misterio didn't want to be any worse and went for a plancha to the outside. However Konan was too far off and while trying to man himself up for a big leep Misterio lost balance for an embarrassing dive. Funny moment that they'd built up for a long time and that's how badly it went. Apart from that the match was the typical lucha exhibition Japan gets before the muscle man Konan made Misterio submit to a ball-tie-up lucha special.

13:31 of 13:31 - Konan made Misterio submit to a modified Indian Death Lock ball

12. Lee Gak Soo -vs- Fumiharu Asako - (Hair Match) [** 1/2]

--- Soo did some martial arts trick exhibitions before the match including doing about a hundred attempts at choping a stone in half. He managed to do it in the end, but it looked hopeless a long time. The match was entertaining in it's own special way and will probable be loved by fans of kung fu movies as Lee was doing his flashy Bruce Lee fighting kicking Asako down a million times. Asako doesn't have a clue about the striking game, especially not defensively and Lee could land those quick kicks as much as he wanted. Asako becomes such a lovable super-heavyweight underdog as he gets knocked down by this little Korean kicker countless times. Asako should consider himself lucky that there wasn't any 3 times knocked down TKO rule because then he'd probable lose 5 times each round as most of the match was based around him laying there passed out and then miraculously get up just in time to continue fighting. Asako is better at the ground and suplex game, so when he managed to catch the little prick he had Lee in a dangerous position. But this wasn't Asako's bout and the fans loved Lee because he's such a different fighter then anyone else and eventually got the KO win on his 1000th knock down or something which means Asako gets a haircut.

13:17 of 13:11 - Soo defeated Asako by KO 1:11 of the 5th Round. Asako gets his head shaven.

--- The first match in Japan with barbed wire boards around the ring. And you know nearly everything in this match was about pushing, stomping and draging you opponent out into the sea of sharp metal. And two minutes into the match Onita takes the first fall into the warzone and Onita sells it like only he can! And he got a cut across his back too with blood running across his back of his teared up white shirt. Onita would fall in the barbed wire several time. Sometimes a little too easy as he would be standing in it and then roll and fall down in pain. Regardless it was more fun seeing Onita try and get Kurisu to take a barbed wire bump. That wasn't so easy. Onita tryed to drag him full force out of the ring with Kurisu grabing ahold of the ropes in full streach. He managed to land clean on the side of the barbed wire nearly under the ring escaping it barely. Onita would finally get him out there a little bit later, but the camera view of that one was bad so you din't get a sense of how the traditional bastard Kurisu was doing in this trash environment. And then it was time for the end with Onita killing the old shit with two nasty straight down Thunder Fire powerbombs with Kurisu somehow kicking out of the first one!

--- This is the inframous shootkick match where Akira Maeda blindsided Choshu with a kick to the eye just because he wanted to. The situation was a ego driven affair with Maeda feeling he was depushed down the cards after Choshu had returned to New Japan a few months earlier and refused to play second fiddle to him. There was also the major styles clash between the two with Choshu the master and pioneer of the lariat wrestling with big bumps and Maeda a UWF shoot stylist of kicks and submissions. The match took a turn in mid-match when Maeda first refused to go along with a Scorpion Death Lock and then Choshu returning the favour by refusing to go along with a wakigatame armbar which Maeda in return refused to sell Choshu's stomp in any way in which Choshu refused to let Akira have the next attack. And this none co-operation caused Maeda to lash out a wreckless warning chop which didn't really hit well along with a warning kick aiming for the arm. The next thing that happend was them ending up in Maeda's corner so he could tag out but before Akira got out of the ring Choshu planted a ruthless faceslap in as payback for the warning shots Maeda had taken at him. Well, they quickly got them seperated and the match continued it's normal way until Choshu was locking Kido in a Scorpion Death Lock facing the other way then where Maeda was. And as soon Choshu had his back turned to Maeda you could see him climb through the ropes and kick Choshu in the eye from behind and without Choshu knowing what was coming. The camera doesn't quite get all of the kick, you get a good feel of what's happening when seeing Maeda creap up on him. And then Akira walked calmly back to his place on the apron as Choshu was trying to summon himself. Once Choshu had Kido turned in the ring position to lock the Scorion Death Lock in he saw the face of Akra and just let go of Kido and started walking toward Maeda. They had to be seperated by the others again. This time it was much harder not getting them to attack each other. Once some order was settled they went for a quick finish with Takada looking barely hurt while getting pinned by Choshu and his lariat wrestling. You could then see Choshu's eye had been shut completely as a result of Maeda's actions. Looked sickening! Akira Maeda would get fired because of this and start up UWF Version 2 the next year.

--- Same match with this angle coming from the TV camera high up in the stands in the Korakuen Hall and you get a very good view of the impact the kick had. Choshu's hair was just flying from the kick Akira blindsided him with. Maeda was super over with the fans and a massive pro-Maeda chant filled the arena too as this was happening. A really strange moment and a real important one as well.

10:31 of *10:52 - Choshu pinned Takada after a lariat

COMMENTS: The 1st hour was a edited version of a tournament featuring shooters, characters and All Japan three which the company was originally built around. Surprisingly many screwjobs and short matches becoming even shorter being squeezed into a one hour commercial release. There wasn't the usual drama usually associated with Onita and seeing him so helplessly trapped into submission was almost weird watching. But this showed one of Kurisu's biggest moments as a pro-wrestler. With the follow-up show of him facing Onita in the first barbed wire board match on Japanese soil. Also fun seeing a fresh Konan from his rookie years doing lucha spot wrestling. Not to mention Asako getting pathetic sympathy as he got the crap beat out of him at the hands of that Bruce Lee wannabe. At the end comes two angles of the Akira Maeda and Riki Choshu shoot incident from November 19, 1987. One at ringside and one from the usual high-up camera in the Korakuen Hall. Pro shots. It's interesting to see the pride and personality clash between two such big personalities.

--- Megumi Kudo and Reibun Amada has now joined FMW! Two former AJW ladies who'd not been considered good enough by AJW and dropped a little while earlier. Amada was the most well known at this point having held the AJW Tag Title a short while before being droped from the roster. I think this was Amada's FMW debut while Kudo had been on a few of the FMW shows the month before. And it was clear that the former AJW due was in charge treating the FMW trained girls like they were trash. And it was clear that they were too. Especially Sato who was far from ready at this point while Matsuda was at least showing signs of knowing how to fight. But that didn't stop the FMW side being killed by the more experienced girls while Despina Montagas was doing a horrible job being the referee for this one. Fun basic stuff as it was a shift in FMW's ladies division toward something great. Kudo picks up the pin when she cross-bodypressed Matsuda off Amada's shoulders.

14:01 of 14:01 - Kudo pinned Matsuda after a double-team top rope cross-bodypress

2. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Kim Hyun Hann - (3x10 Rounds) [**]

--- With the success of Lee Gak Soo FMW bring in another Korean like him with the crowd friendly Kung Fu movie style. And watching Asako against these guys is just admirable. Asako is kind of like Bob Sapp. He's big and dangerous if he catches you, but he's got no chin for offence and falls down in pain for everything. And Hann landed some impressive kicks including a top rope flying kick straight in the big mans face! Hann was almost murdering the sambo wrestler the first two rounds that way. But then came the 3rd and it was over in no time when Asako caught a kick and made it into a fisherman's suplex before applying the chickenwing facelock for the tap. Fun short fight.

6:35 of 6:35 - Asako made hann submit to a chickenwing facelock 0:35 of the 3rd Round

--- The future Jimmy Del Ray defending the AWA Light Heavyweight Title in a fifteen 3-minute round bout with no pinfall allowed. And that hurt Backlunds game a lot. And in reality this was a styles clash too with some interesting parts as to how the two different styles of fighting would work out. Lee had his speedy martial arts kicking and Backlund had to rely on his amateur wrestling skills and try to hook in a submission, but while he was better at the ground game then Lee he didn't have enough skills to get in a serious submission and the crowd grew impatient with Backlund because of it. And Lee kept landing more spectacular blows that became the highlight of this one. In the 5th round Backlund was caught with too many kicks and was KO'ed after a getting hit with a dropkick. He nearly got up in time though, but the decision and AWA belt was awarded to the Korean.

12:44 of 12:44 - Soo defeated Backlund by KO 0:44 f the 5th Round after a dropkick to become the 2nd AWA Light Heavyweight Champion.

--- The Japanese Kendo Nagasaki! He didn't really have much of a career in Japan apart from a short stint in New Japan in 1985-86 when everybody else was leaving the company thanks to Inoki's dealings until the indy scene was established in Japan during the 90's. Nakasaki did have a solid career in Texas and Puerto Rico and gained a cult status because of it. He's a old school brawler like the rest of these guys and this match was filled for pure madness fighting. As real as it gets. Swinging chairs, cowboy boots and belts recklessly around. And not in the modern protective way. Only swing to hurt in a real heated way! And there wasn't any overkill either to get the point across. Straight in your face beating! It was a Texas Death Match so the rules are pinfall first and then a 10-count KO to win the match. And there was only two such potential match-ending spots. One with Nakasaki getting pinned after double-teaming by the two FMW aces with Kendo managing to get up in time. Kurisu wasn't so lucky and got a royal asskicking for the final ending with Onita Thunder Fire'ing him a couple of time plus Goto landing on him from the top rope. He didn't have a chance in hell to get up from that. Good good brawl the way it should be done!

10:59 of 10:58 - Onita defeated Kurisu by TKO

COMMENTS: A very entertaining 1 hour release from FMW from the Korean Martial Arts guys doing their thing to Megumi Kudo finally coming to FMW to the old guys having a sweet old school Texas Death Match with the boots to match. From memory I don't think Kendo Nagasaki had much to do with FMW after this, so it was cool to see them mix together in such a badass way as this.